The scope and intensity of the challenges currently faced by western European political parties is exceptionally large, threatening the viability of the manner in which they have traditionally operated and causing them to seek new behaviours and strategies. This volume brings together some of the foremost scholars of European party politics, whose evaluation of political parties in "the new Europe" is organised under four broad headings: Parties as Corporate Actors; Parties and Society; Parties and the State and Parties Beyond the Nation State. Each contributor not only provides a concise,...

The stability of divided societies often depends on whether the elites of rival subcultures are willing and able to engage in compromise, as opposed to confrontation. This was demonstrated in 1968 by Arend Lijphart's seminal work on consociational democracies, or societies characterized by both subcultural segmentation and elite accommodation. This volume offers a comparative analysis of such societies 30 years on. Contributors use a combination of Lijphart's model of consociational democracy and late-1990s literature on political parties to examine the pivotal role played by political...

First published in 1998. This is the only up to date English language work which seeks to assess the whole of the post war Austrian experience in the light of the latest research, using a multi-disciplinary approach by historians, political scientists, economists, international relations specialists and literary historians. It is addressed not only to specialists in Austrian affairs, but also to studies and scholars concerned with the evaluation of small democracies, their place in an integrated continent and the shape of post-Communist Central Europe. The formative first few decades of...